July 2007
Matt --[adjective]
| Matt — [adjective]: Similar to butter in texture and appearance ‘How will you be defined in the dictionary?’ at QuizGalaxy.com |
(Via era. I am also “fuzzy to the touch” and “like in nature to a train-riding hobo.”)
Wife-Beating Apologist James Dobson
Wife-Beating Apologist James Dobson:
In a 1984 broadcast of his radio program, she says, Dobson told his listening audience that he had seen situations where the wife wanted to be beaten up. His hypothesis was that the wife achieved a certain moral advantage from being hit. If she pushed her husband into blacking her eye, the world — and God — would view her as a martyr. This way, he said, she could give herself a moral exit from the marriage, because the Bible says marriage is forever.
So for the record, “spanking guru James Dobson” will now be referred to here as “wife-beating apologist James Dobson.”
Sign of the Kiwi by bike
Sign of the Kiwi by bike. Yeah, thass right. Proof by way of incredibly grainy cellphone photos that could be of anything:
~55 min from Blenheim Rd to the top, ~9 min from the top to the Cashmere Rd roundabout. Also, that corner near the bottom marked “25”? You really need to be doing less than 50 km/h, even on a bike. (I only nearly didn’t make it around. Yay good brakes!)
Nowhere to go
Nowhere to go. What distresses me most, I think, about the world I find myself in, is that there is nowhere to go. Previous generations still had places to explore, places which were largely deserted, greatly isolated, and which the majority of the world knew nothing about.
These days there’s, what, space? A huge, empty expanse. Or the sea – it appeals a little, but it’s not really the kind of place you can just wander off and survive off the, uh, land. The desert is largely, well, deserted, but good luck surviving out there.
So that leaves, by my count, nowhere to go but the inside of your head. It’s the last great unexplored area.
Global Warming and The System
Global Warming and The System:
Perhaps you are a fan of Al Gore, who in his recent book and movie, An Inconvenient Truth, draws a rather facile comparison between the problem of curbing CFC production to preserve the ozone layer, and the problem of stopping global warming. Beware of Al Gore’s siren song: “The system is good, the system works, work within the system.” The system was good for Al – it made him Vice President, and a lifelong member of that club. The goodness of his system, plus a winning lottery ticket, would be good for you too. For the rest of us, business-as-usual is not helpful, nor are people like Al who try to talk it up.
— Dmitry Orlov, The New Age of Sail
#152
Religion, it seems, is about helping people with their day-to-day lives. Jesus, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about routine and obligation.
Jesus said to Peter ‘forget your nets, and follow me. You’re not a fisherman anymore; you have a new life.’ He said to the crippled man ‘get up and walk; you’re not a cripple anymore. You have a new life.’ He said to the prostitute ‘go, and don’t sin anymore. You’re no longer a prostitute. You have a brand new life.’ He told the rich man ‘sell everything you have, and follow me. It will be a new life.’ He told Nicodemus ‘you must be born again. You must begin a new life.’ He told his disciples ‘leave your families, go out into the world, and take nothing with you but the good news. Begin a new life.’
Paul, on the other hand, says ‘there is neither slave nor free. But, uh, slaves, respect your masters.’ He says ‘there is neither male nor female, but women submit to your husbands.’ Paul says ‘there is inner transformation (so just forget about outer transformation for a while.)’ Paul says ‘if there’s need in the community, someone can sell some of their extra [extra?] possessions to support the others.’
I don’t think Jesus ever intended to found a religion. A religion is a set of rules and guidelines that help people live the same lives they’re already living. Religion provides structure, a sense of order in a community, a sense of family and belonging. These are all good things, but I don’t think they’re what Jesus came to give us. After all, the Jews already had all this written into their religious law. And that may be the problem. Paul (and the other leaders of the early church) had too much invested in their culture, in their worldview, and in their lives. They couldn’t grasp the complete re-creation, the utterly new beginning that Jesus had in mind.
Racism is a sin
Racism is a sin. That sin is woven into the fabric of American Christianity in general and American evangelicalism in particular. Canny politicians have been able to exploit that sin, but it is not primarily a political problem, and the responsibility for fixing it does not fall to any secular political party.
— Slacktivist, Origins of the God Gap
Sweatshopping
Sweatshopping. At the risk of sounding naive and idealistic, it sickens me a little that we consider it okay that people have to do horrible jobs in horrible conditions just to support our consumerism.
Actually, what makes it worse is that the factories shown above seem to be pretty damn pleasant as far as those kind of environments go. What is wrong with us that we consider it okay for people to live like that, just to feed the machine and give us nice shoes? And where to start fixing it? I’m going to try looking for and buying goods (a) second-hand and (b) made on a small-scale.
Brian: 2. An Intruder
Brian filled the jug, plugged it in, and all the lights in the apartment went off. He flicked at the light switch. Nothing happened. He flicked it again. Still nothing.…
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The Chaser's War On Everything
The Chaser’s War On Everything:
Evangelicals, airport security, t-shirt punishment, wanker numberplates, muslim photos, tourism slogans, car advertising, and a trojan horse. Beautiful. (YouTube megapost, sorry.)
Luke 12, 15–31
Luke 12, 15–31:
And he said to them, Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.
And he said to his disciples, Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
Serious words.
BRIAAANNSS
BRIAAANNSS. I have posted another chapter of “Brian”. I’m not as happy with this one as with the first, but meh. Whatcha gonna do?
Reality?
Religion and Drugs
Religion and Drugs:
Pursuing the religious life today without using psychedelic drugs is like studying astronomy with the naked eye because that’s how they did it in the first century AD, and besides, telescopes are unnatural.
— Timothy Leary, The Politics of Ecstasy
You're not your job
You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your fucking khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.
— Tyler Durden, Fight Club
There may be another way
There may be another way. If it is, in fact, the voyeurism that I don’t like about the idea of journalism, then Gonzo journalism may be just the solution. From the fount of all knowledge (Wikipedia):
Gonzo journalism is a style of storytelling that mixes factual events into a fictional tale. It uses a highly subjective style that often includes the reporter as part of the story via a first person narrative and events can be exaggerated in order to emphasize the underlying message.
The fictional, stylised part sounds a whole lot of fun, but the journalist being part of the story is what really grabs me. None of this ‘I’m just here to watch’ rubbish.
(Inspired by Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.)
Transformers is Totally Badass™
Transformers is Totally Badass™. Doesn’t really justify a full review, but some notes:
The Decepticons (the side of evil) all take the form of machines of war—weapons—while the Autobots (the side of good) all take the form of classic symbols of American consumerism.
We first meet the Autobots in America. The Decepticons, on the other hand, are encountered in the middle east (Qatar, in the UAE), then bring themselves and their terror to America.
It’s curious how so many of the alien races we invent describe us as ‘a violent race.’ I mean, the only possible explanation is that we consider ourselves a violent race, which means we have some idea that this isn’t the way things should be… but we’re still violent? On the bright side, violence is supposedly diminishing over time.
People really want deep government conspiracies to exist.
For all that I’m close to pacifist, hi-tech military hardware is FREAKING AWESOME. Military aircraft in particular. Phwoarr.
I gotta be honest, Quentin Tarantino made far better use of Tomoyasu Hotei’s Battle Without Honor Or Humanity in Kill Bill.
#141
The man wore old cargo pants and a blue checked shirt with ripped elbows. His chucks had the laces undone, and his toes were sticking through holes in the ends.
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